Frequent BSODs IRQL NOT lESS EQUAL minidumps included

[weir]

Intel Pentium D dual core 2.8ghz
Foxconn Intense 945P7AA motherboard
Total Ram: 1024gb DDR2 SDRAM 533mhz
(3 blocks 1x512mb 2x256mb)
Windows XP SP2

Hi, i keep getting random BSODs with my system, it has occured ever since i assembled my computer just before christmas. Its very hard to notice a correlation between activity and the crashes but it often seems to coinside with moving large amounts of data between my hard drives. for instance it crashed this morning when i was copying 4 4gb files from my e: drive to my c: drive.
I have a gut feeling it has something to do with the ram, only from reading other posts that are similar, i have 3 large hard drives so i have tried different combinations of page files on the different drives...

<as a side question, can you set your page file too high? obviously its a waste of hard drive space but i have a 200gb, an 80gb and a 250gb (c,d,e respectively) each with aleast 60gb of space on so wasting hard drive isn't really a problem, what would you recommend?>

This is starting to become very frustrating as i have no idea what is causing this, i have included my minidumps if thats any help...
thanks in advance.
weir.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

I suspect you may have faulty ram.

Go HERE and follow the instructions.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

 

[kirock]

Just in case; can you post what your PSU is make/model and wattage. 3 hdd is alot and will pull a hefty draw on any PSU.

 

[weir]

my power supply is an iso 400pp from novatech. it is marked as having a maximum output of 300watts..
don't know if that helps, i will follow the ram instructions too...
thanks.

 

[weir]

ok, i just found eXtreme psu calculator and my system came out at a wopping 431w, while my psu is rated at 300w. could this be my problem?!? i'm pretty sure i've done the calculations correctly...
i never really thought about it before but i sometimes have problems getting my pc to power on, its been like that since i got it, i'll sometimes press the power button and it'll wur a bit and then die. i have to wait say 20/30 seconds then hit the power again and it normally works. i allways presumed this was a surge protection thing, its especially loathe to turn on again if i have to power it off due to a system hang...
i haven't done the ram checks yet... i will now...

 

[kirock]

ok, i just found eXtreme psu calculator and my system came out at a wopping 431w, while my psu is rated at 300w. could this be my problem?!?

YES

You need to upgrade this as soon as possible. Some ppl are unaware of this fact about PSU, so I'll take the chance and state the basics. Most (dare I say all), generic/No name/crappy PSU have at best a 70% continuous power out from the Label wattage. The label watts is their peek power (or they can sustain it for only a minute or 2, then poof!) Also the # 431W as calculated is most likely correct for continuous use, but this would assume all 3 HDD are busy all the time. Prob not the case, but why chance it. If fact we recommend you take that number and ADD 30%. So in your case this is 560W, so a 550W-500W QUALITY unit will do. If you buy a crappy you'll need 430W +30%(headroom)=560/0.70=800W!!! Umm they don't exist! So your only option is to buy a good quality PSU with at least 500-550Watts. The 12V rail is very important, it will need to have 30A or more. This usually means the PSU will have two 12V rails, with values like 18A and 16A.

OZCModstream are high end units (but aren't cheap) and they help cool your system. Antec and ThermalTake both make so good quality units if you buy the right model. (ie. these companys will make a lower end PSU too).

Let me know if you need any more information.

Do the RAM check just in case, but I'm 95% sure we found your porblem

Cheers.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

An under powered psu can cause all kinds of problems, including random crashes, freezes etc. I suggest you upgrade your psu to a good quality 500 or 550 watt model.

Regards Howard

 

[weir]

cheers, thanks. i'll look into it. i'm a bit miffed as i bought the system as a barebones set up, ie: motherboard, processer and ram. obviously they wouldn't know that i was going to put in 3 hard drives and a high end graphics card but still, you would have thought they'd give you a bit of an overhead...
just looked at prices for high end +500w power supplies, looks like they come in around 50-60 quid!! ouch!
oh well, looks like it has to be done,

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Spending 50 or 60 quid on a good psu, is better than having a crap psu fail and fry your valuable components.

A good quality psu is so often overlooked, when in reality it`s the engine room of any computer.

How did the memtest go?

Regards Howard

 

[weir]

i reseated the memory first, there's not much dust in my case as its only 3 months old but like the faq said, i gave the connectors a bit of a clean, i ran memtest and it detected nothing so it all seems to check out. i'm pretty certain now that it must be the power supply, i'm gonna give it a go anyhow.

it would make sense that crashes often occur when accessing more than one hard drive, while maybe i have a few applications running etc...do you think that its related to the fact that sometimes i can't get my pc to turn on, its like its having trouble turning over if it was a car?!?
if i leave it for 20/30 seconds i can give it another go and it may fire that time. if not i leave it again and try, allways gets going eventually but a few times i've thought it was fully dead!!

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Yes, it all points to an underpowered psu. Change it asap, before any damage occurs.

Psu`s by Antec/fortron/Enermax to name a few, are all respected makers.

You might find this article on psu`s interesting.

The psu thread.

The reason I suspected faulty ram is because of the errors in your minidumps. A faulty, underpowered psu would also cause the exact same errors.

Let us know how you get on.

Regards Howard